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To Save a Snake
Rend lies on a medical slab, teetering on the verge of death as his systems start up a cascade failure. The med bay itself is a bit of a wreck... It seems his consciousness flickered briefly at one point whilst still in giant snake mode, and he thrashed several other tables, the ceiling-mounted consoles and expensive medical equipment which lie strewn across the floor. Drones try to tidy up, but they're not very good at it because drones. Rend must've been forced back into robot mode, but he's still far too large for the creaking table. He's got everything from giant gashes and giant holes blasted in his chest, to intense plasma damage thanks to Blast Off's bombardment. Combat: Socket prepares Rend for surgery, his COMBAT flag has been waived. Combat: Socket expertly repairs Rend's injuries. Combat: Socket is able to repair some of Rend's internal systems damage. Fortunately despite being classified as a medic Horsepower is both pretty tough and really strong, so with the help of a couple of techs was able to eventually wrest the thrashing snake back into place and trigger a transformation. Only to find his robot mode to be equally large. And try to do this without aggravating any farther wounds. Hoo boy. This was gonna be a tough one, even by Autobot standards. Now he was just standing by, using his portable workstations to rush fabricate some replacement parts while waiting for Socket to finish preparing the subdued patient. Got to focus on what's the most crucial to Rend remaining functional, which isn't necessarily the most -damaged- parts in this case. Deliverance is, of course, in the medical bay. It's where he spends his time when he's not exploring strange planets with pink femmes and surly mercenaries, or drooling over Halo and making the Healthabots angry. Hey, it's a hard life being a triplechanger! He'd been there when Rend arrived, but since he'd just come off of quarantine after the strange encounters on Planet X, he'd stayed where he was at first, not wanting to get involved. Turns out that was a good plan, as the giant snake monster decided to trash the medbay, and would have cought him in that thrashing had he rushed to help as per his usual MO. Now that things seem more settled, Deliverance is settled on a nearby overturned medical table, his banjo in hand and plucking out a mournful tune as he watches in silence at first..finally he passes an energon-goodie tot he turbine-squirrel perched on his shoulder before saying, "So what's the plan here doc?" to whoever is taking charge, on hand to assist but seemingly still unwilling to take 'lead' on things. Socket has been working non-stop since Rend was brought in by Swoop last night. Rend is an enormous Cybertronian, and his vital systems are spred the length of his body, meaning Socket has had to run from one segment of snake to the next fighting fuel leaks, actuator failures and severed neurocabling. She has hooked up an energon-nucleon feed not only to Rend, but to herself, to force her systems to perform long past need for recharge. During the initial preparation and stabilization, Rend briefly achieved consciousness; she was knocked across the medical facility until Horsepower could subdue the patient. She'd dented herself, but there's no time to complain. Life is on the line, and she is fully in action. "Deliverance, I need you to take the broken outer plating of Rend's left leg and put them into the materials analyzer to check for molecular composion and possible sub-dermal degredation. Horsepower, if you please, get the energon lines hooked up to his left fuel processing sector. I'm going to see if he's stable enough to apply a sensor block from his third cervical vertebrate to keep him out of pain and from waking up and thrashing us all again." A recent transfer to Iacon, Errata isn't aware of the gravitas of the situation. As far as she's concerned, it's just another day of people dying in a hospital. That's what happens in war, and when you spend a lot of your time in high urban combat areas for funsies, you're bound to find a lot of dead bodies. What is vaguely interesting, however, is just how much attention is being paid to this "Rend" fellow. It's not quite enough to pique Errata's interest to the point of caring, but at least she's vaguely paying attention. Instead, she amuses herself by standing in the corner, a holographic burst of flame rolling around her arms and hands as she keeps watch with the dubious orders of 'guard duty', although to what extent a mutilated robot needs guarding is lost on her, since apparently spasming to temporary life is enough to destroy half of the medical bay. Pixelated eyes flicker to life on her otherwise featureless helmet if only to give the people around her a polite way to gauge her mood - the digital eyes convey, in a very high tech fashion, a completely blank stare. Medics talk a lot and are either very excitable, very dedicated, or dead to the world. She plays a silent game with herself to determine what category each one falls in. Rewind has heard about this giant snake in the medbay and...c'mon, there's no WAY he isn't coming in to see what this is all about. Camera is on (as always) as he walks in. Upon seeing the somber mood and the medics present and working, the tape-bot comes in quietly as to not interrupt the important work to be done. He edges over to where Errata is standing, and gives her a nod if she looks as him. Then he quietly asks, "How's he doing? Do you know?" Combat: Rewind compares his Technical to 70: Success! Combat: Horsepower compares his Technical to 70: Success! Combat: Socket compares her Technical to 70: Success! Deliverance is easy to get along with, and doesn't ask questions, argue, or otherwise really comment on his instructions. He simply begins executing them in the most efficient way he can think of. Transforming into cyber-rotor mode, he flies the length of the medical bay from where he was perched, reaching the others quickly on silent engines before moving down to Rend's legs, transforming into ambulance form beside his left leg, which apparently hangs part way off the medical table. The ambulance's rear shell splits open as it parks into position, deploying his armor repair arms. Articulated extensions deploy and start to carefully excise damaged armor from Rend's leg, stripping the heavy armor out of the way and running it through his own onboard analyzer, transmitting the results straight to the medical computer for detailed analysis. Combat: Deliverance compares its Technical to 70: Success! The medical drones try to shoo Rewind away. "No recording," they insist, then move to fuss over Errata as she steps near the downed equipment. The medics do a pretty bang-up job keeping Rend's lasercore burning. Socket stops all the leaks and mends all of the neurocabling, Deliverance successfully repairs a limb and Horsepower properly hooks up the lines. Rend begins to stir perhaps ahead of schedule, hissing through dental plates. His hands grip the edges of the berth and slowly crush the metal. Horsepower holds up a hand. "On it." There's a bit more sparkling and click-clacking from his worktable before he finally stops and turns around, holding a coglomerate of parts and tubes. "Had t'rig somethin to bypass the less critical damage to his fuel economizin' components, we ain't got the time to spend on surgery for every piece possible. Gotta focus on what's most important to keepin' him runnin'." Other than that advice he's fine with letting Socket lead the way. She's the actual doctor here, he's just a mechanic and inventor. "Amazin' how these guys have advanced ways to be so efficient livin' in the wilds." All the high tech talk sounds kind of funny in his rustic twang. He trudges over to install the replacement components as Socket indicated. "Reroute the energy feeds to just what's most crucial to him livin'. Anything else can be sealed off and replaced once he's not gonna die on us all." Though even he's a bit surprised when Rend starts to come around again so quickly. Thankfully without more thrashing this time. He shuffles out of the way, returning to his workstation to continue making parts and other materials as needed. Socket applies the pain block to the patient, preventing his sensors from picking up damage - pain - and she clamps off a damaged tube to address him directly. "You're in a safe place. No one here will hurt you," she says in her most soothing, comforting voice possible. "We're mending your injuries, but I need you to lie still, relax, and focus on my voice. I will answer your questions, but I need you to be calm so that you can recover, sir." Yes, sir. Respect goes along way. She cuts out damaged components and cleans out ash from plasma burns, and worse. In come fresh parts handed to her from assistants and the other medics present as she deals with his torso and core, restablishing vital connections. Combat: Horsepower compares his Technical to 80: Failure :( Combat: Deliverance compares his Technical to 80: Failure :( Combat: Errata compares her Technical to 80: Failure :( Combat: Socket compares her Technical to 80: Success! He's alive! ALIVE! Errata's pixelated eyebrow moves up the tiniest bit as the large neutral seems to quietly seethe back to life as she ducks and backs out of the way of swarming drones in a passive-aggressive "I'm not touching the equipment" sort of way. But as soon as it seems like the large patient seems to be getting better, Errata can almost sense the complications. Maybe it's just that electrical field she's sensitive to, but something seems off. As the tension rises, Errata does her best to stay out of her way, but her curiosity is one hard obstacle for her to overcome. As a result, she does her best to stand on her tippy-toes and crane her neck, resisting the urge to snap her fingers to EMP pulse the drones into the dark ages. Through the collected effort and expertise of the trio of medics, Rend is properly brought back from the brink, though sensors and wires don't quite line up like they ought to, even with Socket's pain dampening. He hears her, and her soothing does at least keep him from reaching to strangle her, but his last memory was the death of his warriors and the blinding light of Blast Off's plasma, so he's pretty damn anxious. With a snarl, he springs to his feet, crouching down on the table and coiled to strike. "WHERE!" he demands, leering pointedly at Deliverance for some reason. "Wooooah there big guy," comes Deliverance's voice as he looks coiled to dive out of the way of an impending strike, the medic backing instantly out of arms reach. "You just need to calm it down there fella..you're in Iacon, in a hospital, because you were almost dead. We're tryin' ta keep ya from finishing that particular job off..but you start trashin' the place again I'm callin' in the Dinobots!" he says warningly. He's all for the whole 'do no harm' but he's not putting the medical team in danger to do it. "Now you just lay back down an let us see about keeping that core stabilized until you can be fully repaired!" He..looks visibly worried, but stands up to it.. Combat: Deliverance sets his defense level to Protected. In response to Rewind's inquiry, Errata shakes her head, her mouth an expressionless line as she raises her hand up. A tiny Chibi version of Rend appears in front of the tape-mech with a cartoonish hole through it's chest. It looks hopping mad, judging by the flailing of the ardorable arms. The line of a mouth stretches slightly, as if to say 'that's about all I got for you, pal' as she shrugs. She's not a doctor. Socket's work is interrupted as Rend pulls himself off the table and prepares to assault another medic. Oh, this is not going to stand. Not in her ER. She darts between Deliverance and Rend, getting right in his way, glaring up at him, her arms spread wide to take up as much of his sight as possible. In the fully commanding fury of Irritated Judy Dench voice, she barks, "That is enough!" She adjusts her tone immediately, still firmly resolute but more empathetic, trying to reason with the damaged Neutral. "The Decepticon responsible for attacking you and your warriors is not here right now. If you want to avenge them you will sit back down on that repair berth and let me finish fixing you. Your people need a living leader, not a dead one!" Rewind zips away as the drones try to shoo him off. "Hey, I'm the Autobot archivist... this is MY JOB. This might be the most important thing that's happened to Cybertron since...since Unicron, or something." There's a pause. "Well, Ok, that's unlikely, but... YOU NEVER KNOW. This could be history in the making!" His small size comes in handy as he just darts in between some of the drones, then edges away as they turn to look at Errata. Once she has a moment to respond to him, he stares up at the display. There's another long pause. "That's... so cool. Oh wow, I need to talk to you sometime about putting together some video displays for me and Blaster..." He hops on each foot one after the other in excitement, then calms down again as the gravity of situation comes to bear again and Socket moves to confront the antogonistic neutral. "Uh... but later." Rend studies Deliverance for an uncomfortable moment, then a very irritated Socket comes between them. The strength of her tone is enough to get him to ease up, and eventually settle back down on the edge of the table. Pain seems to win out over anger, and that's when his remorse sets in. He gazes blankly at the floor. "I was certain we could... drive them off... Damn it all. I must return. What is the state of the mountains? Where are your news feeds? And tell me your names, that I may remember them." With the larger form of Socket in front of him, Deliverance decides he'd better prep to back her up in a more significant fashion, and calls his rifle out of subspace..it's a new sight for anyone familiar with the medic, as he isn't really the 'combat' sort..but the sound of the rifle chambering a magnetic round and starting to spin it up is a low pitched hum.. She shrugs again. Expressive, that Errata. The side of her mouth quirks up into a half smile as the little Rend fades into nothingness. A large Cybertronian 'OK' appears on her helmet where her eyes used to be before flickering back to the pixelated blue patches that serve as a gentle reminder that she's not a complete alien - just a little bit of one. As Rewind darts away, it leaves her to contend with the crowd of errant drones, which interferes with her ability to see what's going on. Just as well, though. The female Autobot is wary as the neutral leader's ire grows, and the handle of her rifle pops from her hip holster. As Rend speaks rather than starts swinging, she eases off of her trigger hand. News feeds? Now that she can do. She places a hand against an access panel and instantly accesses the data stream, focusing her holographic projectors to fire up a series of news screen projections throughout the room displaying the latest news on the attacks on the neutral settlements. Yay! She's helping! Socket clears her vents gently. "Deliverance, dear, we won't be needing that." She moves to take up position to repair Rend again. Horsepower is possibly in the background getting some news feeds. The situation is not likely good - the mountains have been conquered, but Autobot forces remaining have been working to filter the survivors and wounded into safer areas. "For what it's worth, sir, I apologize. I apologize that we could not all be stronger. My name is Socket. I did my best to save the wounded among the Kowentides as well." There's a small smile from Deliverance, "Jus' makin' sure he's gonna simmer down and not smash the place again Miss..hard to keep repairin' the refugees when the entire hospital is trashed, ya know?" he explains as he holds the rifle up, leaning against his shoulder. He watches a moment, then unchambers that magnetic round and drops the rifle back into subspace. "But yeah..we're doin' all we can ta get the refugees out of there an' funneled to safe places. But the Manganese range has fallen to the Decepticon's, your people more or less buckled under after they saw you an' your warriors all get nuked from orbit.." he says, voice sympathetic and sorrowful. Horsepower gives a grunt from where he's working, but doesn't add any farther comments to the conversation yet. This is just a little reminder that he's here in the background. Deliverance says, "Oh, and name's Deliverance..glad you pulled through." Rend's gaze settles on the feeds that Errata projects. It's clear holograms are pretty rare where he's from, as he reacts with a slight jerk. It's grim news, and Socket outlines it. "Socket, I've heard your name. They did speak of you. And Deliverance, how appropriate. Don't apologize... If we had any sort of wit we'd be off this forsaken planet by now." While he's mildly heartened by the news of refugees, his settlement is still in shambles, so no real thanks is returned, at least not yet. He drops his face into his palms. "Just knock me out, shaman. Don't wake me till the Empire falls." Rewind continues filming, moving in closer to get a look at Deliverance's shiny weapon... then on to a good angle to record Socket calming the Neutral Leader. He tries to stay out from underfoot, though. Horsepower finally trots back over, if only to lay one of his broad hands reassuringly on Rend's shoulder. "Sorry buddy, if it was that easy we'd all be doin' it. Besides, ya people back there waitin' for ya. They're gonna need a leader in times like this. Now ya just take yer time to rest so ya can give 'em that." Pause. Then decides not to say something about learning his lesson about trash talking at the enemy. It's not the right time for it. "We'll get you back on your feet as soon as possible," Socket replies. "In the meanwhile... I think we all need to rethink our game plan for dealing with this mess."